Clothespin



g- 14, 1951 w. K. FAIRCHILD 2,564,327

CLOTHESPIN- Filed Aug. 16, 1946 v Patented Aug. 14, 1951 IMUNITEYD STATES PATENT OFFICE CLOTHESPIN Y Wayne K. Fairchild, Benton, Wash., assignor to Henry F. Smidt, Seattle, Wash.

Application August 16, 1946, Serial No. 691,069

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to an improved clothespin of a nature intended to be used with a wire clothesline, and for its general object aims to provide a clothespin which will serve to sustain clothes without necessitating a contact of the clothes with the metal of the line and which otherwise possesses superior advantages with respect to convenience, security, and general efiiciency.

With the foregoing and other more particular objects and advantages in view, and which will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claims, the invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of partshereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawing- Figure l is an end elevational view of the preferred embodiment of the invention shown applied to a wire clothesline and with the complementary jaws which act to grip the clothes being I illustrated in closed position.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view thereof, and also indicating a piece of laundry and such, for example, as a sheet, caught between the jaws, the wire line and the sheet being shown fragmentarily.

Figure 3 is an elevational view from the side opposite the vantage point of Fig. 2.

Figure e is a vertical sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary end elevational view of the clothespin illustrating the parts in the relative position which they assumeas the clothespin is held over a clothesline preliminary to being dropped into straddling relation to the line; and

Figure 6 is a horizontal sectional view on line 6-6 of Fig. 1.

The pin of the present invention is comprised of two pieces, a forked body principal represented generally by the numeral I0 and a lever part 3 pivotally mounted as at IT to the free end of one of the two limbs of the fork. This lever-carrying limb is given a length shorter than that of the other limb, and is itself bifurcated to produce twin legs, as l2 and I 3. The lever works by its upper end through the open slot described between the legs, and below the pivot presents an exposed head 20 arranged and adapted to act as the movable element of a jaw assembly which includes, as a stationary jaw, the free extremity of the body principals long limb II. The meeting faces I 6 and 22, respectively, of these jaws are formed one with a longitudinal tongue 23 and the other with a mating roove 24.

In producing the body principal, the head end of the slot which lies between the two limbs is made parallel-sided and is given a width very slightly exceeding the diameter of the wire line with which the clothespin is to be used, and this narrow portion of the slot extends to a point approaching the free extremity of the short limb. From this point outwardly the slot is given an expanded compass by providing, in each limb, a re-entrant set-back, as [5 and I5, thus to present a comparatively wide lead-in throat giving access to the constricted head of the slot.

The form of the lever and its placement relative to the body principal is such, when the jaws are open, that the powering arm 2| of the lever then extends transverse to the body principal to occupy an interruptive position traversing the lead-in throat. Given pressure by the wire clothesline, indicated by the letter L, and which is exerted upon the throat-traversing arm from below in consequence of pressing the pin downwardly upon the line, the resulting upward swing of the arm perforce causes the head 20 to swing downwardly, and the two jaw faces are responsively brought into gripping engagement upon a laundered piece, as W, held therebetween. As this jaw-closing action takes place, the line will have been moved from the lead-in throat into the slot thereabove, and this slot now becomes tapering in character marginally defined on one side by the frontal edge of the limb H and on the other side by the diagonally. disposed back edge of the arm 2|.

To accommodate the swinging movement of pivoting as to cause the lever to normally occu- 7 py the position in which it is shown in Fig. 5, and as the preferred arrangement for accomplishing this end the arm 2| is weighted and the lever is given somewhat of a bowed shape with the back of the bow lying to the outside, thus placing the weight center of the powering arm inside a perpendicular raised from the pivot pin l1. Thus positioned, and which is to say as shown in Fig. 5, it is only necessary that the user drop the clothespin over a clothes line while holding the laundered piece which is to be dried in a position therebelow. As the limbs straddle the line and the latter works upwardly through the lead-in throat toward the head end of the restricted slot, lever arm 2| is perforce raised and this causes jaw 22 to close upon jaw I6 and grip the 1ntervening piece of laundry. It is self-evident that the heavier the weight of the laundered piece W the greater the gripping force which is exerted thereupon. To remove the laundered piece the user simply lifts the pin and the jaws automatically open.

From the above detailed description of the in-- vention, it is believed that the construction and operation thereof will at once be apparent. No limitations are to be implied therefrom, it being my intention that all forms of construction and variations in detail coming within the scope of the hereto annexed claims are to be considered as comprehended by the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A clothespin comprising a forked body prin-. cipal having one limb formed to a greater length than the other, and presenting a jaw face upon the free end of the longer limb, the shorter limb being bifurcated in a direction transverse to the fork of the body principal and the longer limb being slotted for a portion only of its length as a registering prolongation of the open slot described between the iurcate legs of the shorter limb; and a lever pivoted between its ends to the free end of the shorter limb to have its inner arm work in said registering transverse slots of the two limbs and its outer arm extend beyond the shorter limb and act by its free extremity as a jaw complement for the jaw face of the longer limb.

2. The clothespin of claim 1 in which the inner arm is so formed as, upon a closing of the jaws to the inner extreme of their permitted relative movement, to occupy a position whereat the same acts in conjunction with the longer-limb of the pin to describe a contracting throat therebetween.

WAYNE K. FAIRCHILD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 925,828 Newton et a1 June 22, 1909 1,855,655 Vetter Apr. 26, 1932 2,269,662 Guyot Jan. 13, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 21,094 Great Britain of 1895 107,992 Austria Nov. 27, 1927 121,341 Australia Apr. 11, 1946 146,927 Great Britain Sept. 22, 1920 514,649 Germany Dec. 15, 1930 

